monday, november 3, 2003
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the university daily kansan 5A
Day of the Dead culturally diverse passes without events at University
By Robert Perkins
rperking@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
With the closing of the University of Kansas' Museum of Anthropology, the Day of the Dead passed largely unrecognized yesterday.
Last year, the museum that is housed in Spooner Hall hosted exhibits, discussions and lectures for people interested in the Mexican holiday.
Lack of funds caused University officials to close the museum to the public, ending the displays.
Michael Doudoroff, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, said he didn't know of any organization picking up the slack.
He said that the museum had always celebrated the holiday, but now that the museum was closed, no one had thought about taking over. He also said the Spanish and Portuguese department did not have the personnel to put on special events such as the Day of the Dead.
The Mexican Day of the Dead,
or Dia de los Muertos, is a holiday
to remember the dead.
It began more than 3,000 years ago with an Aztec ritual that involved setting out the skulls of dead ancestors to honor them when they returned to earth. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived 500 years ago, they tried
to convert the indigenous population to Catholicism. In their attempt, they moved the holiday to Nov. 1 and 2, so it would coincide with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.
"Mexico isn't just Spanish and Indian," he said. "You can't reduce it to a very simple mixture of two things."
Over the years, many cultures have blended to form the holiday that is celebrated today. Doudoroff said, African, North American, French and other cultures have contributed.
To celebrate the Day of the Dead, participants set up offering tables with objects that their dead relatives liked in life, then go
clean off the graves of their relatives and have a picnic in the graveyard.
"It's more like a family thing," he said. "I could do it, but I don't want to do it by myself."
Eduardo Paz, Mexico City freshman, said that while he would celebrate the holiday if he were back home, he wasn't going to do anything special at the University.
Paz said he thought the Day of the Dead would be a good holiday for KU students to learn about. Everybody knows about Halloween, Paz said, so they should know about the Day of the Dead.
Edited by Erin Riffey
Conference honors history, heritage; promotes value of student leadership
By Johanna M. Maska
jmaska@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Editor's note: A portion of this story was left out of Friday's University Daily Kansan because of a design error. The full story is reprinted below.
A crowd was huddled, talking amongst themselves, on Wescoe Beach when a couple of shy freshman approached it.
The people in the crowd introduced themselves and joked with the newcomers. But unlike most days, no one parted for class. Instead, a step show ignited, pitting the men of Alpha Phi Alpha versus the men of Kappa Alpha Psi. Camera phones shot up to capture the scene.
The scene was not at the actual Wescoe beach, it was Woodruff auditorium. And the students weren't chatting unassumingly, it was all a skit, as a part of Thursday's Black Leadership Symposium at the Kansas Union. More than 500 high school students from around the state attended the event, which emphasized the
the value of both leadership and the University of Kansas.
For Gabriel Roland, Kansas City, Kan., senior, the conferences he attended in both 1998 and 1999 helped make his decision to attend the University. He remembered the deciding moment as a University of Kansas recruitment counselor spoke in a small group.
"I saw them shed a tear and I thought, man, they really care. They don't just want to cash my check." Roland said.
Roland wasn't the only one to see emotion. Thursday's conference was brimming with it.
Reverend Emanuel Cleaver II was the keynote speaker. Cleaver, the former mayor of Kansas City, Mo., started by describing his youth.
"It was a tough time, a very tough time," Cleaver said.
Cleaver was born in a shack which was former slave quarters. Living with three sisters and his parents, his two room house had no toilet and no running water.
"We didn't even know we were poor because everyone was poor," Cleaver said.
Cleaver told the crowd to be proud of itself. With their opportunities, Cleaver said, they could become anything they wanted to become.
Cleaver emphasized the impact of Martin Luther King Jr. on his life. Having King as a role model taught him to be a leader.
Although he grew up in the projects, "the projects didn't grow up in me," Cleaver said.
A 12-year city council member and two-term-mayor, Cleaver knows how to break glass ceilings, he said, and place exclamation points. Exclamation points, he said, are the significant events you create. For Cleaver, one exclamation point is behind his term as the first African-American mayor in Kansas City, Mo.
"You are the great great great grandchildren of the kings and queens of Africa," Cleaver said. "Don't let anybody bring you down."
Cleaver said to be proud.
University officials, famous alumni such as Bud Stallworth, a former Kansas basketball player, and honored guests such as retiring professor Jacob Gordon were all at the Symposium to support the event.
The room erupted in applause. The crowd, which overflowed from Woodruff Auditorium stood to honor Cleaver. Cleaver wasn't the only celebrity in attendance.
The event has grown over the last 17 years. It was a small group that Roland said he remembered five years ago. But Roland remains involved and helps it to grow, he said, because he wants to see people excel.
Brittney Foster, one of the students, said she would prefer to go to Howard University, a predominantly African-American school in Washington D.C. But she said she might switch her choice — with a little incentive.
A group of seniors from Wichita Heights High School said they were enjoying the conference. Although they planned on attending other colleges, they all said this made them consider KU.
"If KU offered me a full ride scholarship, Rock Chalk," Foster said.
Nation Episcopalians consecrate first openly gay bishop
Edited by Shane Mettlen
DURHAM, N.H. - The Episcopal Church became the first major Christian denomination to make an openly gay man a bishop, consecrating V. Gene Robinson yesterday as bishop of New Hampshire.
The act almost certainly means disgruntled conservatives will break from the church.
Robinson, 56, became a bishop when at least 40 other bishops attending his consecration surrounded him for the laying on of hands.
In informal remarks, Robinson's voice broke twice as he thanked New Hampshire for electing him a bishop and reaching out to the "people who find themselves at the margins," as Jesus did.
Conservatives have made moves to split from the church over Robinson and leaders of the global Anglican Communion have said his consecration puts their worldwide association, with 77 million members, in jeopardy.
Study shows less growth of foreign students in U.S.
A new study says the number of foreign students attending U.S. colleges increased by less than 1 percent in 2002-03 —the lowest growth rate in seven years. It's just the latest piece of evidence that international students are shying away from the United States because of tough immigration rules.
The Institute of International Education said tightened visa procedures enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which have delayed the entry of many foreigners into the United States, contributed to the low growth rate.
The ILE said in its annual "Open Doors" report, to be released today, that foreign enrollment increased by only 0.6 percent last year. In each of the two previous academic years, foreign enrollment had increased by 6.4 percent.
Californians head home as weather quells fires
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A second wave of residents displaced by Southern California's wildfires returned home yesterday as a weekend of cooler, calmer weather helped firefighters begin to get the upper hand.
As the threat began to diminish, authorities also sent home some of the thousands of firefighters who have been battling blazes scattered from San Diego County to the suburbs of Los Angeles. The fire that started Oct. 25 just up the road from the Ewings' place, in Upper Waterman Canyon on the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, consumed 91,285 acres. In the last week, that blaze and a half-dozen others across Southern California have burned about 750,000 acres, destroyed nearly 3,400 homes and killed 20 people.
World Arafat says he's ready to continue peace talks
JERUSALEM — Following an Israeli offer, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said yesterday he is ready for peace talks, while about 6,000 Palestinians returned to jobs in Israel for the first time in a month.
In an abrupt turnaround last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said contacts were already underway with Palestinian officials, adding, "We are ready to enter negotiations at any time." Sharon had previously conditioned talks on a crackdown on violent Palestinian groups responsible for attacks on Israelis.
Asked about Sharon's remarks, Arafat told reporters he would accept an offer for talks. "There is no official communication, but we are ready," he said after meeting a delegation of Greek lawmakers at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Talks on the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan have been stalled for weeks because of Palestinian bombing attacks and Israeli military operations, along with the Palestinians' inability to form a stable government.
The Associated Press
Attack on helicopter leaves 16 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq
The Associated Press
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Targeting Americans with new audacity, insurgents hiding in a date palm grove shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying dozens of soldiers heading for home leave yesterday, killing 16 and wounding 20 in the deadliest strike against U.S. forces since they invaded Iraq in March.
Witnesses said the attackers used missiles — a sign of the increasing sophistication of Iraq's elusive anti-U.S. fighters.
Three other Americans were killed in separate attacks Sunday, including one 1st Armored Division soldier in Baghdad and two U.S. civilians working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fallujah. All three were victims of roadside bombs, the military said
Sunday's death toll was the
highest for American troops since March 23 — the first week of the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein _ and the attack represented a major escalation in the campaign to drive the U.S.-led coalition out of the country.
The giant helicopter was ferrying the soldiers on their way for leave outside Iraq when two missiles streaked into the sky and slammed into the rear of the aircraft, witnesses told The Associated Press. It crashed in flames in farmers' fields west of Baghdad.
"It's clearly a tragic day for America," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington. "In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days. But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated."
Like past attacks on U.S. forces and a string of suicide bombings
President Bush, who was at his Texas ranch Sunday, refused to personally comment on the attacks. He spent the day out of public view _ a "down" day between campaign appearances Saturday and Monday.
that killed dozens in Baghdad the past week, U.S. coalition officials blamed either Saddam loyalists or foreign fighters for the strike outside Fallujah, center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation.
L. Paul Bremer, the head of the occupation in Iraq, repeated demands that Syria and Iran prevent fighters from crossing their borders into Iraq.
"They could do a much better job of helping us seal that border and keep terrorist out of Iraq," he told CNN. The "enemies of freedom" in Iraq "are using more sophisticated techniques to
attack our forces."
U. S. officials have been warning of the danger of shoulder-fired missiles, thousands of which are now scattered from Saddam's arsenals, and such missiles are believed to have downed two U.S. copters since May 1. Those two crashes _ of smaller helicopters_ wounded only one American.
The loaded-down Chinook was a dramatic new target. The insurgents have been steadily advancing in their weaponry, first using homemade roadside bombs, then rocket-fired grenades in ambushes on American patrols, and vehicles stuffed with explosives and detonated by suicide attackers.
In the fields south of Fallujah, some villagers proudly showed off blackened pieces of the Chinook's wreckage to arriving
Though a few villagers tried to help, many celebrated word of the helicopter downing, as well as a fire attack on U.S. soldiers in fallujah itself. Two American civilians working under contract for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were killed and one was injured in the explosion of a roadside bomb, the military said.
reporters.
"This was a new lesson from the resistance, a lesson to the greedy aggressors," one Fallujah resident, who would not give his name, said of the helicopter downing. "They'll never be safe until they get out of our country," he said of the Americans.
The downed copter was one of two Chinooks flying out in formation from an air base in Habbaniyah, about 10 miles from the crash site, carrying troops to Baghdad on route for rest and
The missiles seemed to have been fired from a palm grove about 500 yards away, Thaer Ali, 21, said. At least one hit the Chinook, which came down in a field in the farming village of Hasai, a few miles south of Fallujah, witnesses said.
The missiles flashed toward the helicopter from the rear, as usual with heat-seeking groundfired missiles.
Hours later, thick smoke rose from the blackened, smoldering hulk as U.S. soldiers swarmed over the crash site, evacuating the injured, retrieving evidence and cordoning off the area.
The U.S. military would not confirm that the aircraft was struck by a missile, but a spokesman, Col. William Darley, said witnesses reported seeing "missile trails."
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